Can a murderer be forgiven - even if they murdered someone?

In 1938, Dr. Emma Smiley was named president of the Victoria Truth Centre and later that year she was ordained as a minister. She was appointed permanent leader of the church in 1940 and for more than 40 years until her passing in 1983, Dr. Smiley became recognized as one of North America’s leading New Thought ministers.

"Eternally the Voice of the Infinite is rapping at the door of our consciousness offering us - what? New Thoughts for old, new dreams, new desires, new understanding, new knowing." Dr. Emma Smiley 

A Practical American Spirtuality and Practising the Presence of God for Practical Purposes.

Alan Anderson passed away in  Nov 2012. See notice in http://www.neweverymoment.com/newsletter.html
Alan and his wife Deb Whitehouse authored "New Thought: A Practical American Spirtuality" and "Practising the Presence of God for Practical Purposes". Besides their blog they were active proponents of the INTA.

The Golden Key to Prayer

by Emmet Fox

"Read The Golden Key several times. Do exactly what it says, and if you are persistent enough you will overcome any difficulty." -- Emmet Fox

Prayer will enable you, sooner or later, to get yourself, or anyone else, out of any difficulty on the face of the earth. It is the Golden Key to harmony and happiness.

To those who have no acquaintance with the mightiest power in existence, this may appear to be a rash claim, but it needs only a fair trial to prove that, without a shadow of doubt, it is a just one. You need take no one's word for it, and you should not. Simply try it for yourself, and see.

God is omnipotent, and man is His image and likeness, and has dominion over all things. This is the inspired teaching, and it is intended to be taken literally, at its face value. Man means every man, and so the ability to draw on this power is not the special prerogative of the mystic or the saint, as is so often supposed, or even of the highly trained practitioner.

Whoever you are, wherever you may be, the Golden Key to harmony is in your hand now. This is because in scientific prayer it is God who works, and not you, and so your particular limitations or weaknesses are of no account in the process. You are only the channel through which the divine action takes place, and your treatment will really be just the getting of yourself out of the way. Beginners often get startling results at the first time of trying, for all that is absolutely essential is to have an open mind, and sufficient faith to try the experiment. Apart from that, you may hold any views on religion, or none.

As for the actual method of working, like all fundamental things, it is simplicity itself. All that you have to do is this: Stop thinking about the difficulty, whatever it is, and think about God instead. This is the complete rule, and if only you will do this, the trouble, whatever it is, will presently disappear. It makes no difference what kind of trouble it is. It may be a big thing or a little thing; it may concern health, finance, a lawsuit, a quarrel, an accident, or anything else conceivable; but whatever it is, just stop thinking about it, and think of God instead -- that is all you have to do.

The thing could not be simpler, could it? God Himself could scarcely have made it simpler, and yet it never fails to work when given a fair trial.

Do not try to form a picture of God, which is impossible. Work by rehearsing anything or everything that you know about God. God is Wisdom, Truth, inconceivable Love. God is present everywhere; has infinite power; knows everything; and so on. It matters not how well you may think you understand these things; go over them repeatedly.

But you must stop thinking of the trouble, whatever it is. The rule is to think about God, and if you are thinking about your difficulty you are not thinking about God. To be continually glancing over your shoulder, as it were, in order to see how matters are progressing, is fatal, because that is thinking of the trouble, and you must think of God, and of nothing else. Your object is to drive the thought of the difficulty right out of your consciousness, for a few moments at least, substituting for it the thought of God.

This is the crux of the whole thing. If you can become so absorbed in this consideration of the spiritual world that you really forget for a while all about the trouble concerning which you began to pray, you will presently find that you are safely and comfortably out of your difficulty -- that your demonstration is made.

In order to "Golden Key" a troublesome person or a difficult situation, think, "Now I am going to 'Golden Key' John, or Mary, or that threatened danger"; then proceed to drive all thought of John, or Mary, or the danger right out of your mind, replacing it by the thought of God.

By working in this way about a person, you are not seeking to influence his conduct in any way, except that you prevent him from injuring or annoying you, and you do him nothing but good. Thereafter he is certain to be in some degree a better, wiser, and more spiritual person, just because you have "Golden Keyed" him. A pending lawsuit or other difficulty would probably fade out harmlessly without coming to a crisis, justice being done to all parties concerned.
If you find that you can do this very quickly, you may repeat the operation several times a day with intervals between. Be sure, however, each time you have done it, that you drop all thought of the matter until the next time. This is important.
We have said that the Golden Key is simple, and so it is, but, of course, it is not always easy to turn. If you are very frightened or worried it may be difficult, at first, to get your thoughts away from material things. But by constantly repeating some statement of absolute Truth that appeals to you, such as There is no power but God, or I am the child of God, filled and surrounded by the perfect peace of God, or God is love, or God is guiding me now, or, perhaps best and simplest of all, just God is with me -- however mechanical or dead it may seem at first -- you will soon find that the treatment has begun to "take," and that your mind is clearing. Do not struggle violently; be quiet but insistent. Each time that you find your attention wandering, just switch it straight back to God.
Do not try to think out in advance what the solution of your difficulty will probably turn out to be. This is technically called "outlining," and will only delay the demonstration. Leave the question of ways and means strictly to God. You want to get out of your difficulty -- that is sufficient. You do your half, and God will never fail to do His.

"Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved."

Awakening we begin to see things from the Inside Out, so to speak, and before we ask the prayer is answered, and we now know how to pray as we ought, because we recognize the Truth: there is nothing to heal, change, or make right, for all is already finished, done, perfect in Reality. Come away from the illusion that things are either this way or that way in a world of opposites, or opposition. Come into the Reality of a Creation declared very good. Realize that nothing went astray or awry except our thinking!
GOD in a Box
by Jane Woodward

The oneness and allness of God is self-evidently the fact of this Awareness which has forever been alone and All to everyone. Yes, the key is the singleness and all-inclusiveness of this very Awareness. This Awareness of existence, that is right here, right now, is divine! It is God's Awareness, not 'mine'.

A man fraught with fear and consternation came to the author with a terrible tale of tribulation. He wanted someone to do something about all his troubles. After a few moments of simple, light-hearted conversation relative to the Reality that is rather than the sorrow that seems, the man said, “I see! I understand! God is all that is here. God is this very Awareness I am.” He left and fearlessly set about doing all that was necessary to appear happy and prosperous. Many months later he told me that nothing had upset his equanimity since the day of that conversation. 2+2=Reality By William Samuel

Things will disappear only as man changes in consciousness. Deny it if you will, it still remains a fact that consciousness is the only reality and things but mirror that which you are in consciousness. So the heavenly state you are seeking will be found only in consciousness, for the kingdom of heaven is within you. As the will of heaven is ever done on earth you are today living in the heaven that you have established within you. For here on this very earth your heaven reveals itself. The kingdom of heaven really is at hand. NOW is the accepted time. So create a new heaven, enter into a new state of consciousness and a new earth will appear.

AT YOUR COMMAND
By Neville
1939

Reader, your 'salvation' is simple and easy. It is to come out and be separate from Bill, Mary or whatever you call yourself. It is to cease identifying as an enslaver of God, as a possessor of Infinite Awareness. It is to start right now and identify correctly as Awareness itself. There is no yourself, myself or any other self but God. God is being this Awareness. This is who and what you are. You are not a miserable, suffering mortal, so you can stop acting like one. God, Perfection Itself, is being 'you.'

I have known those who have seen and understood this Light instantaneously. Their problems,  consternations and fears were shed as quickly and easily as one takes off his coat. These were the ones who were humbly ready, willing and eager to let God be all that God already is, leaving no place for an ego that puffs itself up and claims to have an awareness of its own. 2+2=Reality By William Samuel

 I was listening to a tape from Robin Duncan ( www.FreePrayerBook.com ) yesterday and although she was talking about ACIM it was very similar to The Golden Key of Prayer.

Pray, focus on what God means to you and go on with yur life with the faithful expectancy of it’s fruitation. Can’t pay a bill? , Pray, make out the check, focus on God and go on out about your business.

Ervin Seale mentioned once about Miss Eleanor Mel staying at the Waldorf during a convention without any money. She got up Sunday, went down to check out, asked for her mail, there was a letter with $70 in it. She promptly paid her bill and left. Seale said neither he nor Emmet Fox ever went anywhere unless they had the money to pay the bill.

 

Thomas Troward's view of this was "Seek ye first the Kingdom of God, and all these things will be added unto you." "The Kingdom of Heaven is within vou." - first find God in yourself and you will find Him everywhere else," It is a case of "you press the button- and we do the rest."

In daily meditation lies the secret of power.

Every man must take time daily for quiet and meditation. In daily meditation lies the secret of power. No one can grow in either spiritual knowledge or power without it. Practice the presence of God just as you would practice music. No one would ever dream of becoming a master in music except by spending some time daily alone with music. Daily meditation alone with God focuses the divine presence within us and brings it to our consciousness.

We must forgive as we would be forgiven. To forgive does not simply mean to arrive at a place of indifference to those who do personal injury to us; it means far more than this. To forgive is to give for--to give some actual, definite good in return for evil given.

"I am the way, and the truth, and the life" (Jn. 14:6)

If you find yourself getting into a strained attitude of mind or "heady," get up and go about some external work for a time. If you find your mind wandering, bring it right back by saying again: "It is being done; Thou art working in me; I am receiving that which I desire," and so forth. Do not look for signs and wonders, but just be still and know that the very thing you want is flowing in and will come forth into manifestation either at once or a little farther on.

If you want to make rapid progress in growth toward spiritual understanding, stop reading many books. They only give someone's opinion about Truth, or a sort of history of the author's experience in seeking Truth. What you want is revelation of Truth in your own soul, and that will never come through the reading of many books. Seek light from the Spirit of Truth within you. Go alone. Think alone. Seek light alone, and if it does not come at once, do not be discouraged and run off to someone else to get light; for, as we said before, by so doing you get only the opinion of the intellect, and may be then further away from the Truth you are seeking than ever before; for the mortal mind may make false reports.

Our way of thinking makes our happiness or unhappiness, our success or non-success. We can, by effort, change our ways of thinking.

Some people who, during the last few years, have been making a special study of the mind find it a fact that certain wrong or false beliefs held by us are really the cause of all sorts of trouble--physical, moral, and financial. They have learned that wrong (or, as they call them, error) beliefs arise only in the human mind; they have learned and actually proved that we can, by a persistent effort of the will, change the beliefs, and by this means alone entirely change our troublesome circumstances and bodily conditions.
One of the methods that they have found will work every time in getting rid of troublesome conditions (which are all the result of erroneous thinking and feeling) is to deny them in total: First, to deny that any such things have, or could have, power to make us unhappy; second, to deny that these things do in reality exist at all.

If you have done any piece of work incorrectly, the very first step toward getting it right is to undo the wrong, and begin again from that point. We have believed wrong about God and about ourselves. We have believed that God was angry with us and that we were sinners who ought to be afraid of Him. We have believed that sickness and poverty and other troubles are evil things put here by this same God to torture us in some way into serving Him and loving Him. We have believed that we have pleased God best when we became so absolutely subdued by our troubles as to be patiently submissive to them all, not even trying to rise out of them or to overcome them. All this is false, entirely false! And the first step toward freeing ourselves from our troubles is to get rid of our erroneous beliefs about God and about ourselves.

A child can be so afraid of an imaginary bugaboo under the bed as to have convulsions. Should you, today, receive a telegraphic message that your husband, wife, or child, who is absent from you, had been suddenly killed, your suffering, mental and physical, and perhaps extending even to your external and financial affairs, would be just as great as though the report really were true; and yet it might be entirely false. Exactly so have these messages of bugaboos behind the doors, bugaboos of divine wrath and of our own weakness, come to us through the senses until we are overcome by our fears of them.

Suppose you had always been taught that the sun really moved or revolved around the earth, and someone should now persuade you that the opposite is the truth. You would see at once that such might be the case, and yet as often as you saw the sun rise, the old impression, made on your mind by the wrong belief of years, would come up and seem almost too real to be disputed. The only way by which you could cleanse your mind of the impression and make the untrue seem unreal, would be by repeatedly denying the old beliefs, saying over and over to yourself as often as the subject came up in your mind: "This is not true. The sun does not move; it stands still, and the earth moves." Eventually the sun would only seem to move.
The appearances are that our bodies and our circumstances control our thoughts, but the opposite is true. Our thoughts control our bodies and our circumstances.
If you repeatedly deny a false or unhappy condition, it loses its power to make you unhappy.

God is omnipresence (everywhere present), and God is good. Then why fear evil? He is omnipotent (all powerful). Then what other power can prevail? Since God is omnipotence and omnipresence, put aside forever your traditional teaching of an adverse power, evil (Devil), that may at any moment thwart the plans of God and bring harm to you. Do not disturb yourself about appearance of evil all about you; but in the very presence of what seems evil stand true and unwavering in affirming that God, the good is omnipresent. By so doing, you will see the seeming evil melt away as the darkness before the light or as the dew before the morning sun, and good come to take its place.

Remember, that nothing--no circumstance, no person or set of persons--can by any possibility interpose between you and the Source of your life, wisdom, or power.

From

Lessons in Truth, by H. Emilie Cady, [1894], at sacred-texts.com

Emmet Fox’s Golden Key. It is, said Fox, "a practical recipe for getting out of trouble. Study and research are well in their own time and place, but no amount of either will get you out of a concrete difficulty. Nothing but practical work in your own consciousness will do that."
What is the Golden Key? "Stop thinking about the difficulty, whatever it is, and think about God instead. . . . Your object is to drive the thought of the difficulty right out of your consciousness, for a few moments at least, substituting for it the thought of God." No job? No presents? No time? Relationship problems? Health challenges? "Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." The idea is to rehearse in your own mind all that you know about God. You don’t have to have every detail clear, just go over what you do know.God is entirely good, everywhere present and available. If we can become still, we can renew our faith and our expectancy of forthcoming good.
Fox added, "Do not try to think out in advance what the solution of your difficulty will probably turn out to be. . . . Leave the question of ways and means strictly to God. . . . You do your half, and God will never fail to do His."

Taming the Mind.

Emma Curtis Hopkins emphasized taming the mind.

Thomas Troward emphasized repeating the Lord's Prayer

when our minds wandered from our purpose.

Our Father in heaven, hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in heaven so on earth.
Give us bread for our needs from day to day.
And forgive us our offences, as we have forgiven our offenders.
And do not let us enter into temptation, but deliver us from evil[1].
For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory for ever and ever.
Amen.
[1] Mathew(6,9:13) Wrong, wickedness, error.

Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in heaven so on earth.
Give us bread for our needs every day.
And forgive us our sins,
for we have also forgiven all who have offended us.
And do not let us enter into temptation, but deliver us from error[2].
For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory for ever and ever.
Amen.
[2] Luke(11,2:4) Anything contrary to the Truth.

HOLY BIBLE
From the Ancient Eastern Text
George M. Lamsas's Translations
From the Aramaic of the
Peshitta

Dr. George M. Lamsa (1892 – 1975) was an Assyrian scholar and author. He was born in Mar Bishu in what is now the extreme east of Turkey. A native Aramaic speaker, he translated the Aramaic Peshitta (literally "straight, simple, sincere or true") into English versions of the Old Testament and New Testament.

From the Mediterranean east into India the Peshitta is still the Bible of preference among Christians, though nearly all who use it speak Arabic,
or one of the tongues of South India.

Stop thinking about the difficulty, whatever it is,
and think about God instead.
The Golden Key to Prayer
by Emmet Fox